‘Frostbike’ Trade Show: Bike Tech Preview, 2017

The annual ‘Frostbike’ trade show is peek at new and evolving bike gear.

Whether you ride carbon-fiber or steel, have spandex sleeves or sleeve tattoos, Frostbike offers a look at the future of bike tech.

We toured the show floor last month in Minnesota at Quality Bike Products (QBP) to find stand-out products for 2017 and beyond.

Here are top six product highlights from this year’s Frostbike show.

Check out GJ’s video review of Frostbike Top Gear above

Wolf Tooth Giant Cog

Ditch your front derailleur and a chainring. With an add-on cog from Wolf Tooth you can slap the extra range onto the rear cassette. The 46-tooth Giant Cog provides maximum spin for tough ascents on road or rocky terrain. Options range from 40- up to 49-tooth and are compatible with Shimano, SRAM, and SunRace cassettes.

G-Form Body Armor

The NASA-inspired technology in G-Form’s protective garments impressed us years ago when the brand launched. This year, G-Form adds new products, including putting its flexible, harden-on-impact padding into bibs for long-distance riders.

Salsa Deadwood SUS 29+

The Salsa Deadwood beefs up for 2017. Now, the split-pivot suspension Salsa helped introduce to the mountain bike world has been adapted to accept plus-size 29″ tires. This makes the Deadwood an impressive blend of burley and nimble.

Onyx Sprag Clutch Hubs

Virtually all bicycles have a freehub body that utilizes pawls to engage the wheel. Pawls are like spring-loaded fins that catch on teeth inside the hub when pedaling forward, spinning the wheel. This works just fine, except that’s not 100 percent efficient; there’s a delay before engagement.

Onyx does away with pawls altogether and has designed a clutch system that is very close to 100 percent efficient. The gap between pedaling and engagement is less than a quarter the width of a human hair, the brand states.

Jawgwire XEX-SL Housing

Everything added to a bicycle makes it heavier, and slower. Cable and cable-housing manufacturer Jagwire did its part to lighten the load. The XEX-SL braided cable housing cuts the weight of traditional coiled housing by half.

Park Tool TS-4 Truing Stand

Truing a wheel is always a painstaking, delicate process. That goes double for fat tires and wheels, until now. The TS-4 allows mechanics to mount a solid axle or quick-release fat wheel without removing tires — up to 5″ wide. That makes life considerably easier in the shop or your garage.